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Black Friday shoppers rake in deals

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By Kelly Mori, Staff Writer 9:30 AM Friday, November 27, 2009

Steve Wilson shook his head as he walked across the dark Target parking lot shortly after 5 a.m. Friday, Nov. 27.

“This is crazy,” he said, half smiling while squinting against the cold misty rain that was starting to blow about. “Don’t you think this is crazy?”

The Springfield man tried to blame his partaking of the morning craziness on his wife, but he admitted the deals she got on Black Friday were well worth the blurried-eyed inconvenience.

“We come out pretty good,” he said.

Wilson was among thousands of Friday’s early morning deal seekers, such as sisters Melissa Mitchell and Lori Hobbs, both of Springfield, who stood outside of Kohls before 4 a.m. waiting to snag one of the store’s door-buster deals.

“We’re here to get the Barbie jets for our daughters,” Hobbs said. “They’re regularly $79.99 and are on sale for $29.99.”

The pair had five stores they planned to hit before they headed to lunch around 11 a.m. A lunch most-likely spent comparing the money they saved in exchange for sleep.

Sara Foss, of Springfield, along with Kay and Connie Foss and Kayla Ogden of Mechanicsburg, were in the Kohls line by 3:20. Less than an hour later the women were in JCPenney, - the second stop on their well-planned shopping day.

“We’ll be done by around 9. Then, Bob Evans,” Connie Foss said.

Small appliances appeared to be the biggest hit at JCPenney while the Extreme 2 video rocker and Nerf-N-Strike toy guns filled shoppers’ carts at Target.

A free video game with a $20 purchase wooed shoppers, like Springfield resident Amanda Frey, to get up at 3 a.m. and stand in line outside of Old Navy, which opened at 5 a.m. By the time Frey, with Bryan Burgert and their 12-day-old daughter Alanna, reached the front of the store, the free game coupons were gone.

“On well, we’re new at this,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “We’ll still have fun shopping.”

“We’ll just have to come earlier next year,” Burgert said.

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